Noun
- A term formed from the initial letter or letters of several words, but which is itself pronounced letter by letter.
Read full definition at wiktionary.org
...Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in Benelux or Delmarva). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English as well as other languages. As a type of word formation process, acronyms and initialisms are viewed as a subtype of blending. Read full entry
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- 1.Acronym and initialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Look up acronym, initialism, alphabetism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A
cronym_and_initialism
- 2.initialism - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- Definition of initialism from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciations, thesaurus, Word of the Day, and word games.
- http://www.merriam-webster.com
/dictionary/initialism
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ACRONYM is a more general term, since it includes any word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words, as Wac from Women's Army Corps, OPEC from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation. Even words that are unpronounceable can be acronyms. INITIALISMS are more narrowly defined as pronounceable acronyms formed only from the initial letters of a series of words: 1. Pronounceable words formed from the initial letters of a group of words, as NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization; or 2. A set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation. |
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Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. Of the two words, acronym is the much more frequently used and known, and many speakers and writers refer to all abbreviations formed from initial letters as acronyms. However, some differentiate between acronyms and initialisms: an acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the initial letter or letters of the constituent words, such as NATO (nay-toe), and an initialism is an abbreviation pronounced as the names of the individual letters, and is formed only from the initial letter of constituent words, such as TLA (tee el ay). This distinction is supported by many dictionary definitions, but not by all. |
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what is acronym and initialism |
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Acronyms are actually a type of abbreviation. An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from each of the first letters of a descriptive phrase, or by combining the initial letters or parts of words from the phrase. (from Acronym Finder: http://www.acronymfinder.com/a bout.asp#What) So technically, USA is an abbreviation, but not an acronym because nobody says "yousa". But practically speaking, most people do not distinguish between and acronym and an abbreviation. You emphasized the word "OF" in your question apparently because you are wondering if the abbreviation should be USOF instead of USA. It is not uncommon for small "noise" words such as the, of, in, on and for to be excluded from an acronym or abbreviation, but there are not hard and fast rules. |
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